The invention is based on a control device for shutting off an internal combustion engine, in particular a Diesel engine. A control device of this kind is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 30 14 712, in which a mechanically driven feed pump, which in practice is mounted on the injection pump at the level of the camshaft, is reversable by means of an electromagnetically actuatable reversing valve, to shut off the engine. The suction chamber of the feed pump and the compression side of the feed pump are connected to the fuel tank for return of fuel to the fuel tank. As a result, fuel is abruptly withdrawn from the suction chamber of the injection pump in this reversed stopping position of the reversing valve, so that the injection pump is no longer capable of pumping fuel and the associated engine shuts off. It has been found that with this known control device the suction action of the feed pump described above does not always operate rapidly and abruptyly enough to generate a sufficiently negative pressure in the suction chamber of the injection pump. Thus, satisfactory shutoff of the engine is not assured, and the dangers of engine damage caused by excessive engine speed and an excessive fuel quantity, as well as of accidents caused by the impossibility of "negative gas feed", are not sufficiently reliably avoided.